Installing 400 Watt Solar System

Go-Fly

Well-known member
Finally got home and the first thing I'm doing is install the new solar panels. They came from Renogy Solar the day before we rolled out of town. They are 100 watt panels. Un-packed them and tested them out in the sun for 22.5 volts.

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Mounting tabs came with the kit. This kit must of been done on a Monday because one of the bolt bags didn't have any nuts. I don't have any 10mm nuts in the shop so, I changed them out to 1/4''.
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Bolted the tabs to the panel with lock washers and Lock-tite. There are two mounting holes in each mounting tab, for the roof. Going to use 1/4" butterfly bolts to hold the panels to the roof. A little over kill but, I don't want them flying off while moving down the road. Will get the panels mounted tomorrow.
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- - - Updated - - -

A few more parts that came in the kit. More on this later.

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Go-Fly

Well-known member
Ran the wires going down to the control panel, through the vent. Used a 12" 3/8" drill bit to drill down along side the washer vent. Ran the wires through the side of the vent. Will reseal it when I'm done.

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Laid out the solar panels and marked where the holes will go.
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Drilled 32 5/8' holes in the roof . Was very careful to not drill into any roof frame or wires. I find it very helpful to drill my pilot hole through a flat washer so, when I broke through I didn't grab the rubber roof with the hole saw and tear it. Then run the drill motor real fast and feed it slow. Makes a nice hole in the rubber.

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Now that all the holes are drilled, it's time to mount the solar panels. I put eight butterfly holders on each panel. Blocked up the panels, then put self-leveling sealer around the hole, put the washer down and put sealer on top of the washer. Dropped the panel down off the blocks and tightened the bolts. This makes for a great seal. Then ran sealer over the top of the bolt just to make sure. Going to let the sealer dry and then will finish the wiring. There is no way these panels will blow off going down the road. Even doing 70 into a head wind. If I ever have to replace the panel, I'll have to cut a hole in the panel to unbolt it. Then put in a tee bolt on the new one.

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Go-Fly

Well-known member
Her's some more pics of the install Jim. Got all the wires fasten down and all the screws sealed. Plenty of room to get up there and clean the panels. Going to rain tomorrow so, I'll get up there and wash off the foot prints.

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Have all the wires run to the control panel. Still need to hook up the wires to the battery and install the thyristor on the battery for better charging. Then I will connect the solar panels to the controller. I had to take out the amp gauge to make room for the solar control panel. Made a new switch holder for the inverter switch. Now that I know where it is going, I'll make a black plastic switch holder with white fonts to match the Heartlands.

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I have never installed solar panels before. The instruction from Renogy where not very clear. All the wires are black and marked the same. A good volt meter that will tell you polarity is a must on a job like this. Took my time and tripled checked everything. By tomorrow afternoon I should be charging my batteries using sunlight. I just find that so cool.
 

Go-Fly

Well-known member
How are you going to wire the 4 panels? Series?? Parallel?? Combo of both??


Max input for the controller is 25 volts so, I ran all the solar panels in a parallel circuit. Each panel has an output of 22.5 volts. Checked the voltage on the wires at the controller and had 22.5 volts. Didn't load test it to see what the amperage is. Will do that when it is all hooked up.
 

Oregon_Camper

Well-known member
Max input for the controller is 25 volts so, I ran all the solar panels in a parallel circuit. Each panel has an output of 22.5 volts. Checked the voltage on the wires at the controller and had 22.5 volts. Didn't load test it to see what the amperage is. Will do that when it is all hooked up.
Amps will vary based on sunlight, but your max will be base of panels x4. Enjoy solar... It is awesome!
 

Go-Fly

Well-known member
All finished and making "V's". Cloudy day today so couldn't do a full check. Had to extend the thermristor line to the battery. Used foil tape to hold it to the side of the battery. The batteries are running at 70f. Ran the slides in and out to run down the batteries before charging.


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Was able to run all the lights, charge the phones, run the inverter, DVD player and the TV. All the time charging the batteries. The batteries show full charge, 100%.
Panel voltage is down to 15.6 and the float voltage is 13.9. Going to like this solar. Thank you all for following. Next is to fix the leak in the slide out.

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Bohemian

Well-known member
Great install.

What are the physical size dimensions on those panels? How wide and long a panel do you think you could install?
 

Jim.Allison

Well-known member
Your amps should be running at about 17....... 400 watts / 22.5V = 17.77 amps.

And can you program that controller to get the float charge down to 13.2 to 13.4? 13.9 might be pushing those flooded batts a little hard.

Didn't load test it to see what the amperage is. Will do that when it is all hooked up.
 

Go-Fly

Well-known member
Great install.

What are the physical size dimensions on those panels? How wide and long a panel do you think you could install?

The panels are about 2ft x 4ft. I'm not sure how many panels I could install up there. May add two more however.
 

Go-Fly

Well-known member
If I read Interstate Battery info correct, at 15C*( the temp at the time) their battery can be float charged at 13.9 volts. As the temperature goes up on the battery, the float voltage goes down. The controller has a thermometer taped on the side of the battery. As the battery heats up the float charge will go down. I will keep an eye on it. There is a 2.6 amp continues load on the system that may be causing a problem with the float charge. This is my first solar system of any kind. Any info on charging will be of help. On a good sunny day I will do a dead load test on the solar panels by themselves. I should be able to pull them down to 13 volts and get 30 amps out of them. That is what Renogy claims. I'd be happy with 25.
 

Jim.Allison

Well-known member
If I read Interstate Battery info correct, at 15C*( the temp at the time) their battery can be float charged at 13.9 volts. As the temperature goes up on the battery, the float voltage goes down. The controller has a thermometer taped on the side of the battery. As the battery heats up the float charge will go down. I will keep an eye on it. There is a 2.6 amp continues load on the system that may be causing a problem with the float charge. This is my first solar system of any kind. Any info on charging will be of help. On a good sunny day I will do a dead load test on the solar panels by themselves. I should be able to pull them down to 13 volts and get 30 amps out of them. That is what Renogy claims. I'd be happy with 25.

Disregard, I did not know you had interstates charts corrected for temps. And now I notice that your controller has a temp sensor. But is your controller programable? does it know that you have flooded lead acid? or is it defaulting to some middle of the road format?
 

Go-Fly

Well-known member
Disregard, I did not know you had interstates charts corrected for temps. And now I notice that your controller has a temp sensor. But is your controller programable? does it know that you have flooded lead acid? or is it defaulting to some middle of the road format?

Yes, when using the temperature compensation mode you must set the controller for the type of batteries you are using. Also there is a voltage compensation for line loss between the control panel and the battery. There are two 18ga wires ran from the controller to the batteries, with a .5 amp fuse on the hot side. I soldered all the connections and checked it with an ohms meter. The controller uses temp and true battery voltage to manage the charging. I was impressed with the set-up and that is why I went with it. I didn't show any of the wiring in my thread because people see that all the time. In retrospect, that would of been helpful for why things are the way they are. Like I said, this is my first solar install and I still have a lot to learn.
 

Jim.Allison

Well-known member
That is a good feature, true voltage and temp. That will save your batts over the long haul. Systems that are in very hot parts of the country can overcharge and kill the batts easy if they disregard temps. That company you bought from has a really good complete systems. I pieced mine together, I spent way to much money on it but it was fun learning and building a dependable worthwhile system.
 

Go-Fly

Well-known member
Made it back from our first trip with the solar panels. Ran the generator once the whole trip. It took longer to warm up then the time we used it, 2 minutes and 8 seconds to do a bag of popcorn in the micro wave. We watched TV every night, kept all the phones charged, ran the heat all night, lights, hair dryer and toaster. By 11:00am the next day the batteries were all charged up. One day it was over cast and we were still all charged by 2pm. We do a lot of dry camping and I can't tell you how nice it is to not have to run the generator every day to charge the batteries. I'm going to build a battery holder behind my trailer axles but before my spare tire to hold four, 6 volt batteries. I don't think it will hang down too low to cause a problem. That will be another build thread. I think four 6 volts and a 4000watt inverter is the way to go. Then we can run the micro way and never have to turn on the generator unless I'm running my air compressor. I will never own a rig again that doesn't have solar on it.
 
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